With the executive producer Cate Blanchett in his head, the series of Netflix Stateless persons take a look at the harsh conditions in immigration detention centres in Australia. The program follows four characters as they navigate a center located in a remote desert location. One of the main threads of the series is Yvonne Strahovski, who portrays Sofie Werner, a flight attendant to escape a cult. Stateless persons it is based on a true story — Werner on the real-life counterpart is Cornelia Rau, a German-born Australian resident who hit the headlines after being illegally detained in an immigration detention center. Rau of the expertise brought to the attention of Australia, treatment of, as the show title suggests, a stateless person. Here is what you need to know about its history before checking the serial.
What Was Cornelia Rau of the Story?
Born in Germany, Rau went to Australia with his family at an early age and grew up in Sydney. Finally, the he received a diploma in leisure and recreation, then began working as a flight attendant in 1993. Their problems took a turn when she joined the controversial cult Kenja in 1998. According to parliamentarian Stephen Mutch, the recruits were forced to tell their darkest secrets to the group, then they were blackmailed if left. Former members have explained that the leaders (two of which are represented by Blanchett and Dominic West in Stateless persons) forced the followers to cut ties with the family and to give a considerable part of their income to the cult. Rau spent five months, much to her family’s concern.
How Rau end up in a Detention Center?
The years following her involvement with Kenja, Rau had problems with his mental health. Spending time in and out of hospitals, she he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, then schizophrenia. In March 2004, Rau snuck out of the psychiatric wing of Manly Hospital and disappeared. Days after that she was back, the Queensland police apprehended her. She told them that her name was Ana and she was going to come out of Germany, the presentation of a stolen passport Norwegian. Later, Rau said she could not give her true identity, due to their fear of the Kenja sect.
In April, Rau was imprisoned in the Brisbane Women’s correctional Center. The officials had no idea who she was, but also not to consider the fact that she could have been from Australia. They believed she was a lost German citizen. At one point, they even put Rau in separate confinement for his behavior — she pace, do not wash, and compulsively hoarded their food, among other things. It is important to note that she had gone months without his schizophrenia medication. In August, a psychiatrist finally diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, and then sent to a hospital. The government continued with the suspicion that she was illegally in Australia despite having no concrete evidence about your case.
In October 2004, Rau was transferred to the Baxter Immigration Detention Facility. There, she lived next to many asylum seekers, including The iranians, Afghans, and Iraqis that had happened many years after their asylum applications failed. Mental health experts are not thought Rau had a personality disorder, but said that she was not mentally ill. Instead of giving her treatment, the center put in Red, a compound in which only allowed four hours out of their cell each day. In January 2005, The Age published a story about her, the flame of a mysterious woman who may be sick. His family immediately recognized her and asked for her release. Years down the line, Rau received $ 2.6 million in compensation for unjust detention.
The Others Were in Baxter?
After his release, Rau made headlines, possibly, as some have pointed out, because she was white. Currently, there are around 1,450 people locked up in immigration detention centres on the Australian continent. The average length of stay in one is around 500 days, although some remain in detention for years. Stateless persons, which does not belong to any nation, you can have indefinite stays. Through the years, the conditions in these centres have worsened, more and more, such as prisons, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
This was true for many of Rau’s fellow detainees at Baxter. In 2004, three Iranian asylum seekers in Baxter staged a protest climbing onto the roof of the gym. Others joined a hunger strike or sew their lips together. Shortly after the Rau left, another protest erupted in Baxter, this time of the out of. The detention center, finally, closedbut refugee advocates have remained cautious about other centers in Australia.
Stateless persons premieres on Netflix on July 8.
